


Palmer, Cecil G. Sertraline.

by StrippingWizardsOnABartop



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Cecil has Lyme Disease, Cecil is Mostly Human, Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, Established Relationship, Insomnia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 14:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13706346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrippingWizardsOnABartop/pseuds/StrippingWizardsOnABartop
Summary: Set sometime before Condos. (31.5) Cecil has certain preferences for transportation and date nights and unusual sleeping habits. Carlos is very accepting of it all, but a little confused. My theory of how Carlos found out his boyfriend has a chronic illness.





	Palmer, Cecil G. Sertraline.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidnightThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightThoughts/gifts).



> I have listened through all episodes. But I am not perfect and neither is my memory. My Cecil head-cannons are purple eyes, tentacles, tattoos (including a gun with the words This Machine Kills Fascists written on it), and probably too many teeth. If anything differs too wildly from stated canon, just push it gently to the side of your mind and off a canyon into a never-ending abyss. Thanks.

Night Vale wasn’t that large of a town. Carlos knew big cities and he’d visited plenty of college towns. Heck, he’d been on campuses that were practically their own towns. Night Vale wasn’t that big- at least on days when reality remained constant.

However, unlike the size of Night Vale, Cecil’s preferred mode of travel remained constant. Carlos was above all a scientist and scientists observe patterns and draw conclusions.

It was a lazy Autumn morning. Cecil had the weekend off from the radio station and Carlos being between experimental stages had a some free time. 

“Hey, babe. Want to take some brunch down to the neighborhood park? We could make a picnic of it?” Carlos asked as he stretched lazily in his boyfriend’s bed. The park in question was a small one with a duck pond and a small playground for children in Cecil’s apartment complex. It was tiny, but the weather had finally cooled down enough to allow the outdoors to be enjoyable.

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” Cecil had replied with a smile.

Together they packed a grocery sack with some muffins that Carlos had been experimenting with using rice flour, some fruit and a few other goodies. Moving around each other in the kitchen came naturally and allowed them opportunities to hold hands or steal kisses.

Quickly finished, Carlos made his way outside with the sack as Cecil locked the front door of his apartment. He walked a few paces down the sidewalk and turned to wait for Cecil who was staring at him quizzically from beside his car.

“Did you forget something?” Carlos called as his forehead scrunched in confusion.

“No. I just thought it would be better if we took the car,” Cecil answered opening the passenger side door and motioning for Carlos to come join him.

“Sweetie, it’s just down the street and around the corner. It’ll be better for the environment if we just walk over,” Carlos commented as he climbed into Cecil’s sporty hybrid.

“Beautiful Carlos, we can’t all be so perfect. “ Cecil rejoined.

For the first time, Carlos put together his previous observations and realized he couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone for a walk with his boyfriend. Night Vale was a small town, but Cecil drove everywhere – from Carlos’ lab to date night at Big Rico’s, from the radio station to the gas station across the street on breaks, from his house to the neighborhood park.

“Maybe it’s just safer not to be walking on Night Vale sidewalks all the time,” Carlos thought to himself.

**********************************  
This Season’s Hottest Fashions for Man’s Best Friend at Lee Marvin Memorial Park! Saturday @ 6PM proclaimed the flyer which Carlos had found on the sidewalk. It was really the most ridiculous things that Carlos could possibly imagine- a fashion show for dogs probably complete with a little runway and twenty yappy breeds Carlos had never heard of before.

Cecil would love it.

“Hey, baby. U heard abt the dog fashion thing @ park Sat? U wanna go?” Carlos texted Cecil with his left hand as he double checked the readings on his spectrometer.

“I was actually looking forward to resting up Saturday night and watching Cat Ballou,” Came the answer from Cecil.

“But, Perfect Carlos! We can go if you want to!”  
Read the second text that arrived a moment later.

“No. Just thought it was somethin u wld like,” Carlos answered confused by both how he’d misread his boyfriend’s interest in potential weekend plans as well as how that frequency was even possible from the material he was utilizing.

He had to stretch his mind to remember the last time that they had gone out on a date, instead of staying in for their date nights. He knew Cecil’s preference was for a good snuggle on the couch with a Western on the television after some home-cooked food. But surely he knew that Carlos would also love to take him out for the evening and show him a good time?

*********************************  
There was no way that the D'Arsonval galvanometer was giving him that reading! It wasn’t possible, but Carlos was a very educated scientist and he had good faith in his professors who had taught him to read the machine, even if he was currently doubting a lot of things.

But the galvanometer was telling him that the chunk of vimbee that Cecil had given him was putting off 10 milliamperes! It wasn’t even attached to any other material and could not be part of a circuit! And Cecil had even said that the rock was considered edible by Night Vale standards. This was incredibly unprecedented! 

The scientist had to call Cecil and tell him these results and ask what else he knew about this substance.

“I am calling for both personal and professional reasons!” Carlos excitedly crooned into the phone as he sat down on the lab chair.

“Hello, Carlos,” The radio host replied in his soothing baritone with a smile in his voice. “You seem excited this morning.”

“Morning? Is it morning already?” Carlos wondered as he pulled his cell phone away from his ear to check the time. 4:03 the digital numbers claimed.

“Cecil! Is it really 4 in the morning? I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you,” He quickly apologized. “Oh, babe, you shouldn’t be up! Go back to sleep!”

“Oh, perfect Carlos. It is 4am, but you didn’t wake me,” The other man reassured. “I was awake already. Tell me the personal and professional reasons for your call.”

“Oh, right! The vimbee!” Carlos thought and distracted again by the wonders of the rock which seemed to be its own power source, he began questioning Cecil about everything he knew about the material and its wondrous and edible properties.

Later after he had said goodbye to his boyfriend and he was ready to get into bed himself, Carlos found himself wondering why Cecil had been awake at that ugly hour and why he never seemed to be sleeping when the scientist called with scientific breakthroughs.

**********************************  
Carlos hadn’t meant to get distracted by the vimbee again. It was just that Cecil had arrived at the lab to pick him up for their date night just as the scientist and his team were finishing with the latest tests and the results from the specrometer were so fascinating!

By the time Carlos had managed to 1.) Remember that his lovely patient boyfriend was waiting in the front of the lab and 2.) Figure out how to pull himself away from his science, it had been almost an hour since they were supposed to leave for their mandatory weekly slice of Big Rico’s. He hurried to the front of the lab and stopped abruptly.

He didn’t hear Cecil leave the lab and he didn’t imagine that his boyfriend would have left without saying goodbye. However, the radio host wasn’t in his line of vision when he looked around at the tables and lab chairs which were haphazardly pushed into corners.

Carlos paused to think where else Cecil would be.

“Wait…What’s that noise?” Carlos asked himself.  
“Is that…. snoring?” He thought incredulously as he moved to look under the corner table the strange buzzing sound seemed to be coming from.  
And yes, yes it was. Snoring coming from his boyfriend who had apparently crawled under a table and pulled one of Carlos’s extra lab coats over his torso in a makeshift blanket.

“Cecil, babe? What are you doing?” Carlos questioned gently putting a hand on the other man’s shoulder.

“Mmm? Carlos? Is it dinner time?” The radio host replied stretching and rubbing a hand down his face.

“Yeah, querido. It’s dinner time. Let’s get you out from under there. The quicker we eat, the quicker we can get you to a real bed.” Carlos encouraged.  
Later thinking about the night, it would occur to Carlos that his grown man napping under a table at his boyfriend’s work should have been stranger. But honestly it wasn’t even the most notable place that Carlos had found the other man napping. 

After just weeks of dating, the scientist had concluded that the radio host could nap anywhere. He’d found his boyfriend catching a few zzzs in his sound booth at the radio station, waiting in the car outside the lab for Carlos on date night, laying on the bathroom floor at the radio station having fallen asleep talking to Khoshekh and on one memorable occasion standing up in the shower leaning against the wall when Carlos had climbed in to join him one morning!  
*******************************  
Teddy Williams of the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex had said that it was, “Just a touch of strep throat.” Carlos felt like an army of angry bees had attacked the inside of his throat and firmly held to the belief that Teddy Williams was “deranged.”

“A touch of strep? I’ve had strep and this is the Black Plague!” Carlos thought to himself grumpily as he headed back to his car after consulting with the doctor. He’d be a bit late for his evening plans with Cecil, but it was unavoidable as he had to pick up an antibiotic at the local pharmacy if he wanted to be recovered anytime in the near future.

“Ted says its strep. Hes still deranged. going to pharmacy b4 dinner,” He texted in explanation.

The local pharmacy looked a lot like an ordinary CVS, except for the neon purple sign which flashed YKK and the unusual number of raccoon which were hanging around the building.

The wait to pick up his prescription was tedious and in the meantime Carlos found himself some lozenges and picked up a bottle of the extra-caffeine coffee beverage that Cecil prefers.

“Carlos Hernandez!” A voice called.

Carlos stepped forward and put the cough drops and unholy beverage on the counter and reached for his wallet, but stopped when he noticed something off about the items on the counter.

“Excuse me? I think there’s been a mistake.” He stated to the pharmacist wearing a name-tag reading, “John Peter the Pharmacist.”

“Oh? What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, you gave me two prescriptions and I just came to pick up the antibiotic,” Carlos explained.

“Oooooh…. I just thought that Cecil had sent you to pick up his prescription, too. It’s been a week and he’s not usually this late with picking it up.”

“Cecil’s prescription?” Carlos asked and reached for the other white bag on the counter and read the name on the side: Palmer, Cecil G. Sertraline.

“Yeah, for you know- cause of the Lyme disease?” The pharmacist asked. “Listen, would you take it with you and tell him he can square up his tab next time he comes in?”

“I…..” Carlos trailed off. Trying again he asked, “He still has Lyme disease?”

The pharmacist gave him a strange side-ways look for what seemed like a long minute. Time doesn’t work right in Night Vale, after all. “Well, yeah? It’s a chronic illness. He’s had it since he was a Weird Scout. You are Carlos the Scientist, right? The Carlos the Scientist he’s dating?”

Carlos blinked rapidly at that news. He remembered Cecil mentioning something about having a bout with Lyme disease before he started dating, but he thought he would’ve known if his boyfriend had a chronic illness. But apparently not.

“No. I mean, yes. Yes, I am Carlos the Scientist and Cecil Palmer is my boyfriend and I will definitely take that with me. Just let me pay you for all of this.” The dark-haired man stammered out before paying for the items on the counter.  
When he arrived that night at Cecil’s apartment for dinner, the radio host was in his kitchen making brisket for dinner.  
*******************************  
“Hey, babe. Can I talk to you?” The scientist asked sitting in a wooden chair at the table and swerving it so that he was facing the tattooed man.

“Certainly, perfect Carlos!” Came the reply.

“I wish you wouldn’t say that, particularly today,” Carlos sighed.

“Whyever not?” Cecil asked scrunching up his face in puzzlement.

“Cecil…. I talked to John Peter today.

“The farmer?”

“No. The pharmacist,” the scientist corrected.

“Oh. What about?”

“He gave me a prescription to take to you. He said you were a week late picking it up.”

“Huh. I’ve been meaning to get over there to pick it up, but I haven’t seemed to be able to find the time. I guess that it’s been about a week.” Cecil shrugged.

Carlos rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Cecil, are you a week late with your prescription for Chronic Lyme disease?”

Cecil cast him a side-long glance. “Isn’t that what I just said?” He asked.

“I didn’t even realize you had Chronic Lyme disease!” Carlos exclaimed. “What kind of perfect boyfriend am I if I didn’t even know that the man I love has a chronic illness?”

“You didn’t? You’re always so understanding about my coping mechanisms or when I’m low on spoons.” The radio host now also sounded confused.

“How can I be if I didn’t even know?”

“Well, you know I prefer to take the car, you’ve never complained that I like to stay in and save up energy instead of going out most nights and you’re understanding about my erratic sleep patterns and insomnia.” Cecil stated confidently.

Carlos stared at the other man for what seemed to be a long minute. Time doesn’t work right in Night Vale.

“I….I just thought those were Night Vale things or just….like your personal preferences?” Carlos attempts to explain.

“Well, they are my personal preferences. I’m a person with a chronic illness and I prefer saving my energy and spoons for my career that I love. I prefer not having to explain why I don’t sleep on a schedule like most people or how I deal with bad pain days. I prefer recuperating and rebuilding myself on nights at home with the man I love. Those are my preferences and they’re personal and you’ve never made me feel bad about them.” The radio host answers reaching out and holding his boyfriend’s hand.

“Oh, querido. Really? Because ever since the pharmacist told me I’ve been kicking myself wondering what I could’ve been doing better for you.”

“Well…. I do tend to forget to pick up my prescription. You could help remind me?”  
“I’ll personally pick it up for you next month, babe. And on time.” Carlos vows.

The. End.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is fanfic as a love letter to my wife. Hope some of ya’ll liked it, too. (Antidepressants such as sertraline can be used to treat certain symptoms of post-antibiotic chronic lyme disease.)


End file.
